In the late 1920s and the early 1930s, in order to solve the problem of W and Co shortage faced by conventional WC—Co carbide materials and to meet the urgent demand of manufacturing development for high level tools and dies, Germany initiated to prepare TiC-based cermets by substituting TiC with high melting point, high hardness and abundant reservation for WC as ceramic phase, and by substituting Ni with superior chemical stability and abundant reservation for Co as metal binder. However, it is hard for TiC—Ni cermets to reach high toughness due to poor wettability of Ni with respect to Ti(C,N) particles, which makes it can hardly be used. In 1956, Ford Motor Company found that wettability of Ni with respect to TiC ceramic grains can be improved by introducing an appropriate amount of Mo into TiC—Ni cermets which leads to significantly reduced sizes of ceramic grains and densification of the sintered body, so that flexural strength of the material can be significantly improved. This finding is a significant technical breakthrough for preparation of TiC-based cermets. In 1971, R. Kieffer etc. from University of Vienna, Austria found that mechanical properties of TiC—Mo2C—Ni cermets at room and elevated temperatures can be significantly improved by introducing an appropriate amount of TiN, which leads to a research boom in Ti(C,N)-based cermets.
Intermetallic compound Ni3Al holds excellent characteristics of high specific stiffness, high elastic modulus, low density, and superior corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance at high temperature, besides, yield strength thereof increases with the temperature and reaches maximum values at 700˜900° C. Therefore, it may help improve corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance and mechanical properties at high temperature of Ti(C,N)-based cermets using Ni3Al as binder. However, since Ni3Al has poor ductility at room temperature, Ti(C,N)-based cermets with Ni3Al as binder features low toughness and high brittleness, which makes it impossible for engineering applications.